Static Site Generators Comparison — Complete Guide

In this tutorial, you will learn about Static Site Generators Comparison. We cover key concepts, practical examples, and best practices to help you master this topic.

Compare Hugo, Docusaurus, MkDocs, 11ty, and Gatsby for documentation. Evaluate build speed, versioning, multilingual support, search, theming, and ecosystem for each SSG.

What You'll Learn

You will learn the strengths and weaknesses of the five most popular static site generators for documentation, with configuration examples and real-world recommendations.

Why It Matters

The static site generator is the core of your documentation stack. It determines how content is authored, built, and served. Choosing the right one saves months of frustration.

Real-World Use

DodaTech chose Hugo for the tutorials platform because of its sub-second build times at scale and built-in multilingual support. The 15,000+ page site builds in under five minutes.

flowchart TD
  A[Static Site Generators] --> B[Hugo]
  A --> C[Docusaurus]
  A --> D[MkDocs]
  A --> E[11ty]
  A --> F[Gatsby]
  B --> G[Fastest build speed]
  C --> H[Best versioning]
  D --> I[Simplest setup]
  E --> J[Most flexible]
  F --> K[React ecosystem]
  B:::current
  classDef current fill:#f90,color:#fff,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Feature Comparison Table

Hugo Configuration

baseURL: https://docs.example.com
languageCode: en-us
title: My Documentation
theme: hextra
params:
  description: "Product documentation"
  search:
    enable: true

Docusaurus Configuration

// docusaurus.config.js
module.exports = {
  title: 'My Documentation',
  tagline: 'Product documentation',
  url: 'https://docs.example.com',
  baseUrl: '/',
  presets: [
    [
      '@docusaurus/preset-classic',
      {
        docs: {
          sidebarPath: require.resolve('./sidebars.js'),
          versions: {
            current: { label: '2.0' },
            '1.0': { label: '1.0' },
          },
        },
      },
    ],
  ],
};

MkDocs Configuration

site_name: My Documentation
site_url: https://docs.example.com
theme:
  name: material
nav:
  - Home: index.md
  - Getting Started: getting-started.md
  - API Reference: api.md
plugins:
  - search
  - i18n:
      languages:
        en: English
        es: Espanol

11ty Configuration

// .eleventy.js
module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy('static');
  return {
    dir: {
      input: 'content',
      output: 'public',
    },
  };
};

When to Pick Each SSG

Common Mistakes

1. Choosing Based on Popularity, Not Fit

The most popular SSG is not always the best for your specific needs. Evaluate against your requirements.

2. Ignoring Build Time at Scale

A site that builds in 1 second with 10 pages may take 30 seconds with 1,000 pages on some SSGs. Test at your expected scale.

3. Not Testing MDX Compatibility

If you need custom React components in your docs, Docusaurus or Gatsby are better choices than Hugo.

4. Overlooking Data File Support

Some projects need to generate pages from YAML or JSON data. Hugo and 11ty handle this well. MkDocs requires plugins.

5. Choosing Based on a Single Feature

A tool with the best versioning but poor search may be worse than an average tool with good search. Evaluate holistically.

Practice Questions

1. Which SSG has the fastest build speed?

Hugo, built in Go, with sub-second builds for most sites.

2. Which SSG supports versioning out of the box?

Docusaurus has built-in versioning with the docs:version command.

3. Which SSG uses MDX instead of standard Markdown?

Docusaurus and Gatsby support MDX, which allows embedding React components in Markdown.

4. Which SSG is easiest for a Python team to learn?

MkDocs, which uses Python and has a simple configuration format.

5. Challenge: Create the same three-page documentation site in Hugo, MkDocs, and Docusaurus. Compare the configuration effort, build times, and output quality.

FAQ

Mini Project

Install Hugo, MkDocs, and Docusaurus. Create a three-page documentation site in each. Measure the build time for each. Compare the developer experience and write a summary recommending one for your use case.

What's Next

Now that you understand SSGs, explore Documentation Platforms like ReadMe, GitBook, and Swimm. Then compare API Documentation Tools.